Don't make college students mortgage their future

One of the greatest investments for our economy is access to higher education. Applications to the University of Washington for fall admission have reached a record high number. In order for the UW to remain a "bargain," it must remain affordable for students and their families.

Over the course of the legislative session, we have seen an erosion of the public higher education system in the state of Washington. Drastic funding cuts to public universities will slash expenditures on classroom instruction and decimate faculty and staff. Some proposals would double tuition by 2014, and even triple it by 2017. This budget crisis mirrors the one Oregon confronted several years ago, which resulted in a migration of faculty from the state university system and a reduction in overall quality, while students and their families were asked to pay more in tuition.

House Bill 2344 is the death knell of public higher education in Washington. It restricts access to college through steep tuition increases on Washington State taxpayers. Drastic tuition increases during times of economic uncertainty only promote instability in the system. Many Washington families choose public schools because the cost of attendance at private colleges is too high. It is important to note over two-thirds of high school students who leave the state to attend college do not return. Currently, resident undergraduate tuition is set to mitigate the worst effects of loans on the neediest families. This bill does nothing to help students with the greatest need for financial aid.

It has been argued that the Federal Stimulus (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) leaves families untouched by double-digit tuition increases. However, this is misleading in two significant ways. The stimulus bill increases the Pell Grant and expands the Hope Tax Credit. The Federal Stimulus is a temporary measure, and it is intended to help families struggling to pay current tuition bills, not to offset tuition increases, and the Federal Stimulus.

There are two models proposed to replace the 7 percent annual tuition increase cap: "differential tuition," which charges the full cost of education to those who "can afford it," and "high tuition," which results in higher tuition for resident students in order to subsidize non-resident students.

Differential tuition assumes state support to the universities will remain constant, and this money will be used to reduce the tuition burden for needier families. With the 31 percent budget cut to UW currently proposed, this scenario is precarious, and will lead to disastrous reductions in educational quality and increases in student indebtedness.

The public university considered the flagship for differential tuition, Miami University of Ohio, experienced double-digit enrollment decreases when the policy was implemented. A disproportionate level of this decrease was from students assessed to have the "highest need."

The average indebtedness of these students is $26,378, which is 64 percent more than graduates of UW.

Under the high tuition model, resident undergraduate students at the University of Michigan pay $4,235 more in tuition fees than students at the University of Washington. The average indebtedness for

Michigan undergraduates is nearly 50 percent higher than UW graduates. The average indebtedness for an undergraduate of the University of Washington is $37,785 over 30 years at the current Federal Stafford Loan rate.

In an economic recession, it is not beneficial to students, families, or employers to generate the hefty educational mortgages these models produce.

We are at a critical juncture for higher education in the state of Washington. 2009 will be remembered either as the year the Legislature effectively privatized the public universities or maintained access to higher education for Washington students. The state must balance a $9 billion deficit, and everyone faces difficult decisions in this economic downturn. We need a tuition policy that does not restrict access to higher education or balance the budget on the backs of working families. The more than 360,000 students in the Washington public higher education institutions and their families deserve it.

Richard Lum is the director of the Office of Government Relations for the Associated Students of the University of Washington.